don’t laugh

I’m not a leader
I’m not a left-wing rhetoric mobilizing force of one
But there was a time, way back, many years ago, in college
Don’t laugh, but I thought I was a radical
I ran the Hemp Liberation League with my boyfriend
It was true love, with a common cause
And besides that, he was a Sagittarius

We used to say that our love was like hemp rope
Three times as strong as the rope that you buy domestically
And we would bond in the face of oppression from big business and the deans,
But I knew there was a problem
Every time the group would meet, everyone would light up
It made it difficult to discuss glaucoma and human rights
Not to mention chemotherapy

Well sometimes, life gives us lessons sent in ridiculous packaging
So I found him in the arms of a Student Against the Treacherous Use of Fur
And he gave no apology
He just turned to me, stoned out to the edge of oblivion
He didn’t pull up the sheet, and I think he even smiled
As he said to me,

“Well, I guess our dreams went up in smoke. Huhuhuhuh.”
And I said, “No,
Our dreams went up in dreams.
You stupid pothead.”

And another thing!
What kind of a name is Students Against the Treacherous Use of Fur?
Fur is already dead, and besides, a name like that doesn’t make a good acronym!

I am older now
I know the rise and gradual fall of a daily victory
And I still write to my senators, saying they should legalize cannabis
And I should know
Cause I am a horticulturist!
I have a husband and two children out in Lexington, Mass.

And my ex-boyfriend can’t tell me I’ve sold out
Because he’s in a cult
And he’s not allowed to talk to me.

-Dar Williams, “The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed”